at it is
what education is for,--will feel that it is impracticable. It is thus
that it has come to pass in the average institution of learning, that if
a teacher does not know what education is, he regards education as
superficial, and if he does know what education is, he regards education
as impossible.

It is not intended to be dogmatic, but it may be worth while to state
from the pupil's point of view and from memory what kind of teacher a
college student who is really interested in literature would like to
have.

Given a teacher of literature who has _carte blanche_ from the other
teachers--the authorities around him--and from the trustees--the
authorities over him,--what kind of a stand will he find it best to
take, if he proposes to give his pupils an actual knowledge of
literature?

In the first place, he will stand on the general principle that if a
pupil is to have an actual knowledge of literature as literature, he
must experience literature as an art.

In the second place, if he is to teach literature to his pupils as an
art to be mastered, he will begin his teaching as a master. Instead of
his pupils determining that they will elect him, he will elect them. If
there is to be any candidating, he will see that the candidating is
properly placed; that the privilege at least of the first-class music
master, dancing master, and teacher of painting--the choosing of his own
pupils--is accorded to him. Inasmuch as the power and value of his class
must always depend upon him, he will not allow either the size or the
character of his classes to be determined by a catalogue, or by the
examinations of other persons, or by the advertising facilities of the
college. If actual results are to be achieved in his pupils, it can only
be by his governing the conditions of their work and by keeping these
conditions at all times in his own hands.

In the third place, he will see that his class is so conducted that out
of a hundred who desire to belong to it the best ten only will be able
to.

In the fourth place, he will himself not only determine which are the
best ten, but he will make this determination on the one basis possible
for a teacher of art--the basis of mutual attraction among the pupils.
He will take his stand on the spiritual principle that if classes are to
be vital classes, it is not enough that the pupils should elect the
teacher, but the teacher and pupils must elect each other. The basis of
an art i